HCA Drops Loudoun Lawsuit

Friday, March 7, 2008 - 8:57 AM EST
HCA drops Loudoun lawsuit in dispute over hospital fought by Inova
Washington Business Journal - by Vandana Sinha Staff Reporter

HCA Virginia has decided to drop its long-running lawsuit against the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, which had denied the hospital chain the ability to build the county's second hospital in Ashburn.

The trial was set to begin March 10 in Loudoun County Circuit Court. But instead of going to the courtroom, HCA Virginia said it plans to resubmit a rezoning request to build its planned 164-bed Broadlands Regional Medical Center.

HCA Virginia had won state approval to build the hospital, which is mapped out for a plot less than five miles from the competing Inova Loudoun Hospital. But the Board of Supervisors denied HCA's first zoning request in 2005, resulting in the lawsuit.

Inova has also fought the planned hospital, saying its proximity would hurt Inova's existing and planned medical centers in the area. HCA has argued that it is tapping the most populous part of the county, which is losing residents to health care providers in other jurisdictions.

Since the lawsuit, both HCA and Inova have found themselves in rival positions once again with new plots less than a mile from one another along Route 50 set aside for new hospitals and medical campuses.

HCA said taking the lawsuit off the table might help its efforts to win the appropriate zoning for its Broadlands hospital.

"This action gives the board an opportunity to evaluate our application without preconditions or the pressure of looming litigation," said Margaret Lewis, president of HCA's Reston-based Capital Division, in a statement. "We look forward to a fair and impartial review of our application. Our objective remains unchanged: to bring the county a hospital it supports and needs."

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/03/03/daily44.html

 

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This has been posted and discussed on the Hospital thread, so you mat want to move this there. I think one hospital thread is sufficient!